State employment-population ratios in 2011

March 01, 2012

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia recorded employment-population ratios that were significantly above the U.S. ratio of 58.4 percent in 2011, and 16 states had ratios that were appreciably below it. The remaining 11 states had ratios that were not measurably different from that of the nation.

West Virginia again reported the lowest employment-population ratio among the states, 49.5 percent. West Virginia has had the lowest employment-population ratio each year since the series began in 1976.

Five states registered the lowest employment-population ratios in their series in 2011: California, 56.0 percent; Hawaii, 58.6 percent; Nevada, 57.2 percent; New Mexico, 54.3 percent; and North Carolina, 56.2 percent.

In 2011, Utah registered the largest statistically significant employment-population ratio decline among the states (−1.0 percentage point). The next largest occurred in Arizona (−0.9 percentage point), Nevada and New Mexico (−0.8 percentage point each) and New York (−0.5 point). The District of Columbia also reported a measurable decline (−1.3 percentage points). Virginia posted the only significant ratio increase among states (+0.2 percentage point). The remaining 44 states had employment-population ratios that were not significantly different from those of a year earlier.

These employment data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program. The employment-population ratio is the proportion of the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over that is employed. For more information, see "Regional and State Unemployment — 2011 Annual Averages" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-12-0371.